What the Universe Owes Us
by fanatic218
Summary: How Ryan finds out about the growing relationship between Mike and Max; set after season 2


_A/N~ Another Max/Mike one-shot. I'm working on something bigger, but I seem to be too scatterbrained to get it all down in sequential order. I'll take any suggestions for stories in the meantime! Enjoy!_

* * *

The shrill sound of the phone ringing brought both Max and Mike out of their slumber. Max groaned in protest to the wake up call as she pulled herself closer to Mike.

"Ignore it," she muttered, still half asleep.

"Sorry babe," Mike said, his voice thick from sleep too as he reached over her slight body and grabbed the ringing phone off the bedside table. Max rested her head on his chest as he lay back down in bed, enjoying the vibrations in chest when he spoke.

"Hello," he answered. There was a beat of silence on the other side of the line.

"Mike?" Ryan's confused voice spat back.

Still dazed from sleep, Mike responded, "Yeah, who else would it be?"

"I was calling Max," Ryan said as the picture snapped back into place. Mike stiffened.

"What's going on, Mike?" Ryan heard a sleepy Max ask on the other end of the receiver. His jaw flexed. Mike was still speechless. Max lifted her head to give Mike a questioning look, and even half-sleep, she realized what had happened. The terrified look on Mike's face and her phone in her hand meant one thing. He answered her phone and now Ryan knew. Max closed her eyes and sighed. "It's time to tell him," she whispered. Mike gulped.

"Ryan, uh, can you come over to Max's apartment?" he asked tentatively.

"I'll come over and kill you," Ryan agreed, his fist clenching. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes. I suggest that you be out of Max's bed by then," he spat before hanging up the phone.

Mike dropped his arm to his side and met Max's nervous eyes. "Shit."

* * *

"I told you to ignore it!" Max said to Mike as the two of them ran around her bedroom, picking up clothes thrown all over from the night before. With no time for a shower, they both threw on clean clothes to look presentable.

"I thought it was mine!" Mike protested, cursing himself for answering the wrong phone. One little mistake and he felt like he had opened Pandora's box. "Never been happier to have a drawer here," he added as he tore a dresser drawer open to find a fresh pair of clothes before he met her in the bathroom to brush his teeth. Even though he was stressed beyond belief – t-minus ten minutes until Ryan would arrive – he paused for a beat to take in the recent change that was apparent in their relationship. He loved seeing their things mixed together on the bathroom counter – their toothbrushes in the same holder, face washes next to each other, her perfume next to his cologne. It was another level of intimacy.

Max spit and rinsed her mouth before trying to tame her hair, mussed by the pillow and his hands. "I'll start the coffee," Mike said, already finished getting ready.

"Let me answer when he knocks," Max called out from the bathroom.

"Smart move!" he yelled back, knowing full well that Ryan would likely knock him out if he were the one to greet him. Mike got the coffee started and leaned his elbows against the counter, his head in his hands. He messed up big time. They really were going to tell Ryan soon, but he didn't want it to be like this. There was so much more to their relationship than sleeping together, but Mike knew that the morning wake up call would make Ryan think otherwise.

Max finally came out of the bathroom checking her watch to see that they had just two minutes until Ryan would arrive. She saw Mike head in hands behind the counter and walked over to him. Rubbing his back, she then hugged him from behind and rested her head on his back.

"It's okay, Mike," she said, curious as to why he was freaking out so much. She was nervous too, no doubt, but she didn't understand why he was so upset. He turned around and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest as he leaned back against the counter.

"It's not that he knows now, but how he found out. The only thing running through his mind right now is, 'Mike is sleeping with my niece,' but it's so much more than that and I don't know if he'll get over that call to see it," he sighed, resignation coloring his tone. Ah, now she understood. Max took his face in her hands and lifted herself up to press a soft kiss to his lips.

"Then we'll make him see it," she said, resting her forehead on his. He opened his eyes to meet hers, nodding when he saw the determination in her eyes. He kissed her nose right as there was a pounding on the door. They paused a moment and looked at the door. "We'll start by acting how we do when we're here. Show him that we're comfortable with this, alright?" He nodded in agreement. "Showtime," she joked lightly to relieve a little of his stress before giving him one last quick kiss before she made her way to the door.

The moment she opened it, Ryan immediately burst in, brushing right past her.

"Good morning to you, too, Ryan," she said sarcastically. Just them, Ryan turned to face the kitchen to make eye contact with Mike, who was straightening himself up behind the counter. The tension between them could have been cut with a knife. Ryan took a step toward Mike, his hands in fists and his jaw clenched, but was stopped from another when Max grabbed his arm and pulled him with her to the couch. "Ryan, sit," she demanded. Mike sighed a breath of relief and poured coffee for the three of them, balancing the three cups together as he walked out to the living room and set them on the table. Much to Ryan's chagrin, Mike took a seat on the couch right next to Max, letting his arm slip around her waist while Ryan sat at a safe distance away in the adjacent arm chair and Max leaned against his chest.

Ryan noticed Mike's hand around his niece's waist, but he also noticed Mike's thumb rubbing small circles just above her hip. His initial anger at the intimacy of that touch aside, he relaxed enough to lean back in the chair and take a calming breath. Max was incredibly independent – if she let him touch her like that, then whatever was going on between them was bigger than Ryan had initially gathered.

"How long?" he finally asked to break the silence, although his tone didn't make it sound like a question.

Max talked first. "We acknowledged it the day Joe Carroll was arrested," she said, letting Mike throw in the bit that would hook Ryan.

"We decided though that it couldn't go anywhere until Mark was out of the picture. I was never going to let her be a target for him, Ryan," Mike continued. "And the day after I killed Mark, well I guess you could say that we've officially been together since then." Ryan nodded slowly. As angry as he was, he couldn't deny that their caution was smart. It said a lot about Mike's feelings for her, too. That put them dating for two months, or seven since Joe.

"What did you do in those five months we were looking for Mark?" Ryan finally asked out of curiosity, unable to comprehend how the two had begun to cultivate a relationship without him knowing. Not that he was oblivious to their connection, he just didn't think that it had progressed past a lingering glance.

"Whenever we met here to go over what we knew, Mike stayed a extra hour or so after you left, but always careful to not stay too long to draw any attention to it, and not to confuse ourselves as to why we were waiting in the first place," Max said, smiling sadly as she thought back to all the moments where she wanted nothing but to feel his lips on hers again but knew it couldn't happen.

"It was hard, Ryan. You know what it's like to want to be with someone and know you can't because she would have to look over her shoulder every second of everyday, that you'd be pushing all the baggage and extra danger onto her, and no matter how much you wish things were different you know that you can't take that chance," Mike added softly, watching Ryan's face soften and his head nod. That broke through to him. Without saying it, Mike had told Ryan that he loved Max the way Ryan loved Claire, and the older man respected that.

Ryan got that they were careful, and why they kept it down low, but one more thing was still bugging him.

"Why not tell me? And even if there was technically nothing to tell before we got Mark, it's been two months since then. Why?" Ryan asked, more than a little hurt by their slight. They were the two people he was closest to on this planet, and together they had kept a big secret from them. Max dropped her head, knowing what he was thinking.

"That was me," she said softly. "I was one who wanted to keep it from you." Max gulped. "From the beginning, our relationship – both work related and personal – has revolved around Joe Carroll and Lily Grey. As messed up as it sounds, this case was the foundation of us, and Mike and I honestly weren't sure how things were going to progress when it was all over. If it didn't work out, I didn't want to throw that extra stress and tension onto you," she finished, hoping he would somewhat understand her messed up logic.

"But it did work out," Mike interjected, and Max nodded feverishly. "We're happy, Ryan. You told me once that when all of this was over, we were going to have a life. That the universe owes us that. I found mine," he said softly, giving Max's hand a squeeze with one of his own as he broke eye contact with Ryan to look at her. Her lips turned up in a loving smile, her eyes telling him that she felt the same exact way.

Ryan decided to keep his mouth shut as he studied the young…couple. He wanted nothing more for Max and Mike to happy, he just wasn't too keen on the idea of them being happy together. Their words started to sink in, and he began to allow himself to relax. Mike had shown him again and again that he was more than capable of protecting Max, that he would go to the end of the earth and the end of his sanity to make sure she was safe. And Max, she was who Mike needed to get through everything that has plagued him the last couple years, and she wasn't going to be anything but his rock, confidant, and partner in every sense of the word. They strong individuals, but they needed strength from each other too, as Ryan was starting to see.

So he wouldn't kill Mike. Not today.

"And you're both happy," Ryan concluded for them both. Max and Mike nodded, and then Max's eyes filled with tears through her smile.

"Really happy," she whispered. Ryan nodded back.

"I guess that's it then," he said, hitting his hands on his knees before standing up. The other two stood up with him. He gave them a tight smile. "I'm happy too then. It might not come across that way until I get used to this, but I am. That doesn't mean I won't kick your ass one day, Mike," he half-joked as the younger man chuckled.

"Goal's to not make you have to," Mike said as he wrapped an arm around Max's waist and pulled her close to him for a quick hug. They walked Ryan to the door before saying their goodbyes. Once the door was shut behind them, Mike slowly backed Max up against it and kissed her.

"That went a lot better than expected," he said, a relieved smile painted on his face that she mirrored back.

"That it did," Max agreed, absolutely overjoyed that Ryan had accepted that her and Mike were together, and going to be for a long time. The two smiled at each other before Mike broke the silence.

"I love you," he said suddenly. The second the words came out of his mouth, he realized how spontaneous and true they were. Of course, he had known for a while how he felt about Max, even before they were officially together, he just never labeled it. She held him together when he didn't even know where the pieces of him had fallen apart, made him smile, made him laugh, made him happy – all things he had been missing since he got involved in the Joe Carroll case. Without forcing him to live in the past, she made him the man he was before he watched friends and family die, kill in cold blood, or lose himself in violence. She knew he wasn't perfect, but she made him a little bit closer to it each and every day.

Max stood stunned. _I love you_. His words rung in her ears and all she could do was stare at him with parted lips. After a beat, she saw his face flush as he began to feel embarrassed by his exclamation and suddenly, all her thoughts came to her at once. The biggest smile Mike had ever seen spread across her face as she grabbed his hand. "I love you, too," she said back, unable to look away from the look of love and relief that washed over him. He dipped his head and met her lips with his, kissing her firmly and passionately. Her giggle against his lips caused him to smile back as he lifted her into his arms and carried her off into the bedroom.

* * *

_A/N~ I suck at endings, so leave the rest up to your imagination ;) I hope you all liked it, and please leave me a review! I love them!_

_Xoxo fanatic218_


End file.
